What Is A Good Equifax Credit Score?
What is a good Equifax score? Equifax uses the BEACON scoring model, whereas Experian uses the Fair Isaac Risk Scoring Model, and the third major one (TransUnion) has the Empirica Scoring Model. As all these three versions of scoring models are different from each other, they come up with different credit scores.

Equifax Inc. is one of the biggest consumer credit reporting agencies in the United States. It’s considered to be one of the three largest American credit agencies along with Experian and TransUnion; and was founded in 1899. Equifax is the oldest of the three agencies, which gathers and maintains information on over 400 million credit holders worldwide. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Equifax is a global service provider with US $1.5 billion in annual revenue and 7,000+ employees in 14 countries. Equifax is listed on the NYSE. Thus, it is important to have a good Equifax score.

So, if you compare your credit numbers between the three major companies, you’ll get different results.

Experian 720

Equifax 657

Trans Union 717

In this case, 717 would be the mid score.

In all three cases, these scores represent a composite of the borrower's credit history, employment, ability to save, and so on. In all cases, the higher your score, the more chance you have of receiving credit with a low interest rate. However, the exact scores will differ from each other.

Equifax is very well established, so it’s definitely one that will be added in to your profile when they determine the final number. It’s been around a long time, having been founded as the ‘Retail Credit Company’ in 1899. From there, the company grew quickly and by 1920 it had offices throughout the US and Canada. By the 1960s, Retail Credit Company was one of the nation's largest credit bureaus, holding files on millions of American and Canadian citizens.

But, even though Equifax uses the BEACON model, they still rely upon the FICO information which underlies their reports. “The most widely used provider of credit scores is Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO).” You won’t see the FICO scoring chart in their report, though.

Thus, the credit scores come from FICO. However, that FICO credit score is then used when potential lenders obtain credit information from a credit reporting agency (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian, etc) in the form of a credit report and process the report data through FICO's proprietary software algorithm to produce a credit score ranging from 350-850. So, even though people say that Equifax uses the BEACON scoring model, they still use the FICO credit score to build their report.

And, since the formula used to calculate a FICO score is a closely guarded secret and has been reported to vary dynamically depending on such factors as the rate of bankruptcy filings, foreclosures and current financial climate… you probably aren’t going to unlock the secret behind how they determine those numbers.

However, Equifax will give you a report called a Credit Profile Report. The report will be listed as a Heading, Personal Information, Employment Information, a Report Summary which will be a summary of the applicant's credit history. This will tell the total number of accounts the applicant has, accounts that are still currently active or negative or too new to be rated, accounts that are past due or paid off, person(s) that have inquired upon the applicant's credit history, accounts that are in collections or public records, total amount still owed, and a breakdown of the amount.

In the Scorecard section, the score summary, Equifax/Beacon, is above the applicants credit and trade information and is the overall rating of the applicant's credit. Up to four factors are disclosed and are displayed in order based on their relative impact on the final score. Generally scores exceeding 625 are considered by banks as worthy of loans. The lowest scores are in the low 400's and the highest scores close to 850 (Very few). Scores between 600 and 700 are very common and considered very good. Most tenant applicants will fall between 550 and 650 credit scores.

So, pay your bills on time. Delinquent payments and collections can have a significantly negative impact on your score.

If you have missed payments, get current and stay current.

Pay off debt rather than move it around.

Re-establish your credit history if you have had problems. Opening new accounts responsibly and paying them off on time may help in the long term.

Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed.

Keep credit cards but manage them responsibly. In general, having credit cards and installment loans (and making timely payments) may help in the long term. Someone with no credit cards, for example, tends to be a higher risk than someone who has managed credit cards responsibly in the past.

If you are having trouble making ends meet, contact your creditors or see a legitimate credit counselor.